Red Hot
by irene86
Summary: Raphael goes patrolling alone one night and runs into an acquaintance.
1. Chapter 1

The night air was chilly, almost too much so for a cold-blooded creature. Raphael toughed it out however and fought against the sluggish feeling taking over his body. He crouched at the edge of a rooftop, scanning the nearby streets for any criminal action in which he could intervene. On this particular night, New York City was surprisingly quiet.

His brothers were all back at the lair. With no particular mission, none of them had wanted to go out patrolling, but Raphael's boredom had outweighed his desire to stay in where it was warm. So he ventured out alone, leaping stealthily from rooftop to rooftop, on the lookout for anyone who may need his assistance.

A nearly silent footfall from behind him made Raphael turn his head. Karai stood across the rooftop from him, flanked on either side by a foot soldier.

"Hello Raphael," she said, sounding almost cordial, "Nice to see you again."

"Can't say that I feel the same way," he replied, drawing the sai from his belt.

The foot soldiers each ran at him in turn, attacking either side. Raphael dispatched with them easily, quickly tossing them over the edge of the building. He turned back to face Karai. She hadn't moved and the expression of bemusement hadn't left her face.

She smirked. "My turn," she said and ran towards Raphael with her blade drawn. He caught it with his sai, inches from his face. With her so close to him, he looked into her cold, gleaming eyes and her face suddenly softened. The anger seemed to leave her for a moment and she became more beautiful. He was able to see why Leonardo had been enchanted by her.

Raphael twisted his sai and Karai lowered her weapon, taking a couple of steps back. He took a step closer to her, closing the gap between them. He had her cornered now with her back up against the wall that enclosed the internal staircase for the building. He raised his sai and planted them into the stucco on either side of her head. Before his mind could catch up to his body, his mouth was on hers. By the time he realized what he was doing, Karai's free hand had come up to his neck to pull him in closer.

He broke away from Karai's grasp and then pulled his sai free and replaced them in his belt. "What am I doing?" he asked himself aloud.

"I thought you were kissing me," Karai said, "and I didn't give you permission to stop."

"Excuse me?" Raph replied, shocked at her boldness.

"I knew you'd be interesting," she said, smirking once again, "and you didn't disappoint." She sheathed her sword and then snaked her arm around Raphael's neck. "You're direct, I like that. You see what you want and you take it. You and I are very much alike in that way." Her mouth was on his again, and despite his inner conflict, he readily kissed her back.

A few minutes later, after agreeing that the rooftop was too cold, and that her place was definitely not an option, Raphael found himself in the sewer with Karai in tow. He knew it was a terrible idea, inviting the enemy into his home, and yet he ignored his better judgement and snuck her into the lair anyway.

Donnie and April were sitting in the sunken living room surrounded by books and their laptops. The others were nowhere to be seen. Raph and Karai ran silently through the room to the back hallway.

"Just so you know," Raphael whispered, "I don't trust you."

"Good, you shouldn't. Your brother was a fool to think that he could."

"Leo is a fool, full stop," Raph said and rolled his eyes. Karai grinned.

Raphael opened the door to his bedroom and quickly pulled Karai inside. His eyes adjusted to the dim light and at the sight of a figure seated on the floor, he pushed Karai out of the room and slammed the door shut.

"Mikey, what the hell are you doing in my room?" he shouted.

Michelangelo turned around and looked up at Raph. "Hey bro! I was just reading your comic books, you have better ones than I do."

"Well could you at least ask first?"

"Dude, I would have, but you weren't here."

"Well, I'm here now, so get out of my room!"

"Okay, sheesh," Mikey said, pushing himself up off the floor. "Can I take these with me?" he asked, holding up a couple of issues.

"Sure, fine, whatever. Just leave!"

"I'm going, I'm going!"

Raphael opened the door and peeked into the hallway. Karai was nowhere to be seen. Mikey pushed past. "Goodnight, Raph," he said and went across the hall to his room.

Before Raphael was able to close his door, he saw Leo open his. Karai stepped out of Leonardo's room and Raph felt a pang of jealousy. Leo whispered something to her and then she snuck back down the hallway and through the living room. Leo caught sight of Raphael and ran over to him.

"Look, before you lose it, just let me explain," he begged.

"I'm listening," Raph said, clearly unamused.

"I don't know how she found the lair," Leo started and Raph blushed ever so slightly, feeling guilty. "But she came here looking for me. She said she wanted to call a truce, but I don't know, I think maybe she just wanted an excuse to see me." His eyes gleamed with hope.

Raphael couldn't hold back the laugh, and Leo glared at him. "Trust me bro," Raph said, "that's not it."

"Anyway," Leo continued, clearly still annoyed, "she said that she would try to keep the foot off our backs and she promised to keep the location of the lair from the Shredder."

"And you trust her?"

"I do. I know she works for the enemy, but she's helped us so far. Please don't tell Master Splinter or the others about this."

Raphael sighed. "Fine, but you owe me."

Raph closed his bedroom door and sank onto his bed. _How did I get myself into this mess?_ He wondered. _That girl is so not worth all of this trouble._ But even as he thought it, he knew that it wasn't true.


	2. Chapter 2

The following evening was another quiet one around the lair. After the boys' usual pizza dinner, April came over to study with Donnie. He was helping her with calculus, which wasn't her strongest subject and she had an exam the next day. With the two of them settled into their books, Leo focused on yet another episode of Space Heroes and Mikey plugged into his new T-Pod, Raphael took advantage of everyone's distractions to slip out of the lair and up to the surface.

The air wasn't quite as bitterly cold as it had been the night before. Because of this, Raphael's reflexes were a bit quicker and he traversed the urban landscape with ease. The second he landed on the rooftop upon which he had come across Karai the previous evening, she stepped out of the shadows and cocked her head to the side, observing him. This time she was alone. He stood up out of his crouched position, making himself as tall as his stocky form would allow.

"I figured you'd show up tonight," she said smugly.

Raphael narrowed his eyes and cautiously took a step toward her. Despite what had happened between them the night before and the attraction he was feeling for her, she was still the enemy. "And you're out here waiting for me," he countered.

She put up her hand and he stopped cold. "Wait. As…" she paused to find the right word, "…intriguing as last night was, it was a mistake. We're mortal enemies. I'm lucky that it was Leo who found me last night. If one of your other brothers had seen me in your home, they may not have been so easily swayed by my appeal for a truce. We need to stop this now before it gets any more dangerous."

Raphael took another step forward. "I like danger," he said. Karai didn't move and she didn't reply. She also didn't stop him when he grabbed her around the waist, pressing her body against his plastron. She placed her hand gently over the chipped corner of his shell and looked into his eyes.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Taking what I want," he replied. "I thought you liked that about me."

She sighed. "Look Raphael, this is a bad idea. You can see that, right?"

"Of course I know it's a bad idea. The thing is, I don't care." Raphael was surprised by his own determination. "But if you really don't want to do this, then I'll leave you alone."

Karai responded by placing her other hand on the side of his face and kissing him deeply. "Fine. But how are we going to do this? Are we going to just continue to have secret meetings on this roof and just never tell anyone where we're going or what we're doing?"

"I hadn't thought that far ahead," Raph admitted. Then a thought struck him. "Wait! This isn't a long-term solution, but since the lair is clearly not an option and we can't go to your place, I think I know somewhere we can go at least for tonight. Follow me."

Raph dropped his arms from her waist and took a running leap. He easily cleared the gap between their building and the next. He turned back to check on Karai and found the she was at his heel, keeping pace. When they arrived at their destination, Raphael climbed down the fire escape and jimmied open the window. He clambered inside and Karai gracefully hopped in after him and closed the window behind her. She surveyed the room and gave an expression of confusion and slight disgust.

"We're in a girl's bedroom. Why are we in a girl's bedroom?"

"It's my friend April's room," Raphael explained. "She's studying with my brother Donnie tonight and I heard her talking about pulling an all-nighter. She lives with her aunt, who is out of town visiting relatives, so the apartment is going to be empty all night."

"Except for us," Karai grinned slyly.

"Except for us," Raph confirmed.

Karai gently pushed him until the backs of his knees hit the side of April's bed, and he fell backwards onto it, pulling her down with him. Raph felt something lumpy underneath his shoulder. He reached up and extracted a teddy bear, then tossed it across the room.

Karai dropped her blade onto the floor next to the bed. She then removed the metal plates of her armour and added them to the pile.

"I'm defenseless," she said.

"Does that scare you?" Raphael asked her.

She shook her head vigorously. "No."

Karai placed her hands on either side of Raphael's face and hooked her fingers under his mask. She pulled it down so that it hung uselessly around his neck. The face of a turtle looked back at her and for a brief moment she panicked. But then she looked into his vibrant green eyes and saw in them more humanity than in most of the people she knew.

She relaxed into him and he kissed her. His hand made its way up her arm, over her shoulder and around to the back of her head. His thumb brushed against her ear and he felt the split in the cartilage.

"How did that happen?" he asked her.

"Training accident," she replied. "My earring got caught on my opponent's weapon and half an inch of skin and cartilage wasn't enough to stop it." She traced the lightning bolt cut-out at the top of his plastron. "How did you get this?" she asked him.

"Also an accident," he told her. "A rogue katana got away from Leo. Luckily it didn't slice deep enough to cut my skin."

"We're both a little broken," she observed.

They lay side by side with their arms around each other, kissing lazily until they both drifted off to sleep.

A while later they awoke to a scream. Raphael tried to sit up, but his arm was pinned to the bed. Karai rolled over, freeing his arm and he looked toward the door to see April standing in the doorway looking at them with both shock and relief. Before Raphael was able to introduce them, Karai had already grabbed her weapon and her armour and was out the window.

"I don't even know what to ask first," April said. "What are you doing in my room? Why were you with her? How long has this been going on? Does Leo know?"

Raph stood up and put his hands on April's shoulders. "Slow down," he begged her. "I'll explain everything." He guided her over to the bed and they sat down side by side.

"It only started last night," he told her. "I'm not even sure how it happened. One minute we were fighting and the next I was kissing her."

"So _you_ kissed _her_?" April asked.

Raph grinned, part out of sheepishness and part from pride. "Yeah."

"But what about Leo? He doesn't know about this development, does he?"

"No, Leo has no idea. And don't you tell him either! He'll kill me! Especially after I convinced him to get over Karai."

"What is it about this girl? Do I have to smack you around too? She. Is. Your. Enemy! Not to mention your brother is practically in love with her. Isn't there some kind of guy code that covers situations like this?"

"How would I know! I mean, look at me. My brothers and I are giant humanoid turtles, April. It's not like I've ever been in this kind of situation before."

April sighed. "You have to end this, Raph. She can't be trusted."

"I know," Raphael hung his head.

April put her arm around Raph's shoulder and gave him a comforting squeeze.


	3. Chapter 3

Just a couple of notes before getting into the next chapter:

1. This story is set sometime after The Alien Agenda, but before Enemy of My Enemy, so the guys don't yet know that Karai is the Shredder's daughter.

2. For the sake of clarification, the title of this story is in reference to Raph's mask color (Red), and the meaning of Karai's name (Hot).

Reviews, favorites, etc. are always appreciated. Thanks for reading!

It was another quiet night around the lair. Donnie was looking into Kraang activity, but they seemed to have (at least temporarily) gone off the radar. Raphael's urge to sneak out and track down Karai was nearly overwhelming, but after his talk with April he knew that his involvement with Karai needed to end, lest he put himself and his brothers in more danger than he already had. He spent the evening trying to get her out of his head. He played video games with Mikey, sparred with Leo and unwillingly helped Donatello construct his latest invention, which mostly involved handing Donnie tools.

Raphael turned in early out of sheer boredom. He lay in bed, wide awake, listening to the sound of Splinter and his brothers each in turn go off to bed. Once the lair had fallen into silence, Raph stared up at his ceiling, willing himself to stay put. It took every ounce of self-control that he possessed not to jump out of bed and take to the surface in search of the one person that he couldn't get out of his mind. He thought about the way it felt to have her lying in his arms. He wanted to hold her like that again, to smell her hair and feel her hands against his plastron and her mouth against his.

It had been nearly an hour since everyone had gone to sleep when Raphael's door cracked open with the tiniest squeak. The faint light from the hall silhouetted the figure of a woman standing in the doorway. Raphael's heart beat fast and he pushed himself up on his elbows. In the blink of an eye she was on top of him, leaning down, her lips hard against his own.

"I waited for you," she said accusatorily. Raphael caught his breath and then opened his mouth to speak. She cut him off, "I spent two hours on our rooftop, and when you didn't show, I staked out your little friend's apartment."

Raph smiled at her use of the term '_our_ rooftop' and tried again to speak, "I—"

"I know I ran out last night," Karai said, "but I thought—"

"Will you let me speak?" Raph asked in a harsh whisper.

She stayed silent, but she didn't look happy about it.

"I wanted to come out and find you tonight," he told her. "Believe me, you have no idea how difficult it was for me to stay here." She flexed her fingers against his plastron and traced the seam down the center of it with her index finger. He grabbed her small hand in his own gigantic one and held it firmly. "Karai, April knows about us now. How much longer can we keep this up before everyone else finds out? Especially if you're going to be showing up in my room like this."

At that moment they heard the sound of a door open and close and both of them froze in place, their hearts in their throats. They could hear someone singing softly to himself as he passed by Raphael's bedroom. Raph deduced that it was Mikey on his way to the bathroom; and no wonder with all of the soda he had been drinking that evening. A couple of minutes later, Michelangelo made his way back down the hallway and into his bedroom. When they heard the door click shut, Karai collapsed on top of Raphael and sighed with relief.

"This is exactly what I was saying," Raph whispered in Karai's ear. "This thing that you and I are doing is too dangerous. For both of us."

"I thought you didn't care," she countered.

"If this were just about me, I wouldn't. But I don't want my brothers to get hurt. I don't want you to get hurt. I'm thinking Shredder wouldn't take it too well if he found out that a kunoichi who works for him was dating his enemy."

"I don't know that I'd call this dating," Karai said.

"Well, either way, I'm sure he wouldn't be happy about it."

"I see your point, but yesterday you wouldn't let me back out on this, so I'm not letting you take the easy way out either. Raphael, I like this thing we have. I like you. I'm not willing to give you up so easily."

Raphael grinned sheepishly and wrapped his arms around her tightly. She nestled her head against his shoulder and they said nothing more about it.

When Raph woke in the morning Karai was gone and she had left no trace of ever having been there.

Late in the afternoon, one of the recording devices that Donnie had set up around the city pinged. The brothers crowded around an old laptop to watch the live video feed. The camera was set up near Canal and Bowery, a location with plenty of Purple Dragon activity. But it wasn't the Purple Dragons they were seeing on screen now. A small group of Foot ninjas lurked in the shadows of an alleyway. Behind them stood Karai, and it looked as though she was giving them orders. They fanned out in different directions, some climbing fire escapes to crouch on rooftops, and some taking to other alleys.

"What are they doing?" Leo asked.

"I'm not sure," Donnie replied, "but I think it might be a trap."

"But it can't be. Karai sa—" Leo cut himself short.

"What about Karai?" Mikey asked.

"Umm, nothing," Leo said and turned to look at Raph.

"Anyway," Donnie continued, glossing over the awkwardness, "I think we should go check it out just in case."

Leo nodded. "Okay, as soon as it's dark we'll take to the surface."

Night fell and the boys made their way stealthily to the location of Donnie's camera mounted on top of a building where they could see without being seen. They surveyed the rooftops surrounding them and the street below. All was quiet.

"I don't get it," Leo said. "This just doesn't make sense."

Just then the Foot appeared from every direction, surrounding the turtles. The boys stood back to back, fending off the Foots' attacks. A voice from above called their attention.

"Hello again, boys."

Karai stood at the edge of the rooftop one building over, looking down upon the scene.

Leo looked up at her angrily. "Karai! I thought we had a deal!"

"Deals were made to be broken. Besides, I'm not the one in charge."

"Where is your master anyway? He's always sending his lackeys out to fight his battles for him."

Karai leapt down to their level and the circle of Foots separated to let her pass through.

"I am no one's lackey," she told him. "But the Shredder was otherwise detained."

She turned her back to Leo, knowing he wouldn't make a move to hurt her, and spoke to the Foot ninjas. "Attack."

She turned back around to face the turtles and caught sight of Raphael, teeth gritted, locked in battle with one of her ninjas. He flipped the Foot to the ground and turned to look in her direction. She instantly dropped her cold sneer and smiled genuinely. She raced in to take the fallen ninja's place and Raph grinned at her.

"Hey, Baby," he said quietly enough so that no one else would overhear.

Karai raised her blade and it clashed against Raph's sai. "Baby? Really?"

"I don't know, just thought I'd try it out. What's this all about?" he asked, referring to the fighting going on around them.

"Shredder has noticed that I've been out a lot lately. I think he had me orchestrate this ambush just to give me something to do. Stockman found your camera yesterday and D—Shredder thought it would be a good way to lure you out of the sewers." She took a jab at Raphael's midsection and he jumped back out of the way. She raised her voice so that everyone could hear, "Come on, you can do better than that."

"Let me show you what I can do!" Raph shouted and lunged toward Karai.

She backed away from Raphael's sai and lead him behind a large air conditioning unit and out of sight. Raph tripped on a piece of ductwork and grabbed at Karai's shoulder to try to stabilize himself, but ended up pulling her down on top of him.

"Hi," she said, grinning.

"Hi," he said back. Their faces were only a couple of inches apart and he pushed himself up to close the gap between them.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

Raph turned his head to see Leo staring at them, his expression a mixture of shock, anger and pain.


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry for the long break between chapters! Here's the next one:

One of the foot soldiers attacked Leo from behind, but Leo instinctively sensed him and threw him to the ground before he could even blink. He turned in place to see two more of the foot racing toward him with their weapons drawn. Leo went into full attack mode, leaving behind the scene that had so shocked and hurt him, and channeled his energy into winning this battle. He took on each of the ninja soldiers one by one, until only he and his brothers were left standing.

Leo stood at the center of the rooftop, breathing heavily, his eyes still narrowed in anger. Karai had taken her leave as soon as Leonardo had turned his back. She knew well enough that her continued presence could only make matters worse. Raphael came up behind Leonardo and placed his hand on Leo's shoulder. Leo shrugged it off and stalked away without a word or a backward glance.

Raphael shouted after him, "Would you let me explain?" But Leo gave no response or even any indication that he had heard him.

"What's going on?" Mikey asked Donatello.

"For once Mikey," Donnie said, "I'm just as confused as you are."

Later that night, after the boys had returned to the lair, Raphael tried again to explain his situation to Leo.

"Leo, listen to me! I know it seemed bad, but it wasn't what it looked like. If you'd just hear me out, just talk to me!"

Leo continued to ignore Raphael. "Goodnight Mikey, Donnie. I'm going to bed." He stood and walked toward the back of the lair and down the hallway to his bedroom.

Raphael growled in frustration and a moment later made his way toward his own room. He slammed the door loudly behind him, making sure that Leo could hear how pissed off he was. He threw himself onto his bed and screamed into his pillow.

A sultry voice emanated from the corner of the room. "This isn't a very attractive side of you Raphael. Metaphorically speaking, of course."

Raph rolled onto his back as Karai stepped closer to him. "You really need to stop sneaking into my room," he told her.

"Oh please," she said, waving off his comment, "You know you love it when I show up."

He grinned and propped himself up on his elbow. "Yeah, okay, maybe I don't mind having you around."

Karai smiled back at him and then leaned down for a kiss. It was at that moment that Raphael's door was thrown open.

"Okay Raph, you wanna talk? So talk! Tell me exactly…" Leo trailed off as his eyes adjusted to the darkened room and took in the sight (for the second time that night) of the girl he had a crush on kissing his brother.

"You bastard!" Leo shouted and drew his katana from the sheath strapped to his back. "You hypocrite!"

Karai stood up and faced him. "Leo, calm down."

"No!" he yelled. He pointed the tip of his sword in her direction. "I want to hear what Raph has to say." He looked at his brother, but kept his blade trained on Karai. "How are you going to explain this?"

Raph sat up on the edge of his bed and clasped his hands together between his knees. "We didn't mean for any of this to happen, Leo. We tried to stop it. She's our enemy, I know that and that's why I warned you against getting involved with her. I wanted keep you out of danger."

Leo narrowed his eyes at Raphael. "But this isn't dangerous? Having her in our _home_ isn't dangerous? She could run out of here right now and tell the Shredder where we live!"

"But she won't," Raph said and raised his head to look Leonardo in the eye.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because she has had plenty of opportunity to do just that and she hasn't turned us in. Besides, the real reason you're so upset isn't because you're afraid that she's going to rat out our location to her boss. You're mad because I got the girl and you didn't."

"For the record," Karai interjected, "no one 'got' me," she said with supplemental air quotes. "Raph and I just make out sometimes."

"Our being together has nothing to do with you, Leo," Raphael continued. "I'm not doing this to get back at you for anything. She isn't with me in order to taunt you or to rebel against the foot clan. We're just attracted to each other; it's as simple as that."

Leo lowered his katana and hung his head in defeat. "Fine, but I still don't like this," he said, gesturing at the two of them. "And I don't like you being here," he told Karai. "If Master Splinter finds out he'll have your head, Raph."

"Well, I'm certainly not going to tell him," Raphael said, indicating that Leo should also keep his mouth shut on the matter.

"I won't say anything," Leo confirmed. "But the second anything happens to put this family in danger, I will do everything in my power to keep us safe." He backed out of the room and closed the door silently behind him.

Raphael and Karai were left in silence. Then Raph said, "He's such a drama queen sometimes."

Karai let out a snort of laughter. Raphael took her hand and pulled her down onto the bed with him. She giggled and he kissed her and wrapped his arms around her protectively.

"I'm really sorry about all of that," he told her. "I wish things weren't so difficult for us."

"Raph, it's okay. I can handle much worse, believe me."

He looked into her eyes. "I know you can; I just hope that we won't have to."


	5. Chapter 5

Karai woke to a weak ray of sunlight filtering down through the ducts from the street up above. Somewhere within the duct a fan turned slowly, slicing the light and creating a strobe effect. She turned her head to the side and saw Raphael's face right next to her, looking more serene than she ever imagined he could be. She let the peacefulness of the moment wash over her, relishing the warmth and comfort. Raph then stirred and shifted without waking, pinning Karai under his arm. He began snoring loudly in her ear, and she chuckled to herself. _So much for peacefulness and serenity_, she thought. She tried to push his arm away, but it wouldn't budge.

"Raphael," she whispered. No response. A little louder, "Raphael!" Nothing.

She eventually managed to shimmy her way out from under his arm and climb over top of him. As she began to put on the armor she had shed the night before, she heard the bed springs creak under Raph's weight. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked, his voice thick from sleep.

"Good morning sleeping beauty. I'm going home before the rest of your family wakes up and finds me in your bed."

She was just within arm's reach of him and he grabbed her around the waist to pull her back into bed with him. "Just a few more minutes," he begged. She gave no resistance and eagerly returned his kisses.

She returned home much later than she had planned and was stopped just inside the door of the church by Dogpound. "Where have you been all night?" he asked gruffly.

"That's none of your business Bradford," she snapped at him. The Shredder's henchmen were nothing but an annoyance to her.

He shrugged. "Your father wants to see you," he said and trudged off towards Stockman's lab.

Karai ran down the stairs to the living quarters in the basement. Once inside her room, she stripped off her clothes and got in the shower. _What does father want to talk to me about? _she wondered. _I need to stop sneaking out so often, I'm going to get caught. If father finds out what I've been doing, there will be no hope of forgiveness. _She dressed quickly and went back upstairs to the Shredder's chamber.

She approached Shredder's throne where he was consulting with Baxter Stockman. Upon seeing Karai and her glare of distain, Stockman backed away and scurried off.

"What did you want to speak to me about, father?" she asked.

The Shredder stood and took a step toward her. "Stockman has a shipment of supplies coming in at the docks tonight. I want you to accompany him to make sure that everything goes smoothly."

"Yes, father." She bowed to him, a gesture required of everyone in his employ, regardless of their position – or in her case relation. She then took her leave.

The transaction was to go down at midnight. Karai accompanied Baxter Stockman along with Dogpound, Fishface and a couple of foot soldiers just in case something went wrong. As they stood waiting at the docks for the supplier to arrive it began to rain. It started as a light drizzle, but quickly turned to a downpour. The wind picked up and Karai found herself shivering and longing for the warmth of Raphael's bed.

"Where is this guy?" Bradford complained. "He was supposed to be here almost an hour ago. I'm freezing!" He shook the rain from his fur.

"At least you have a coat," Xever pointed out.

"You're a cold-blooded, aquatic animal," Stockman told him. "Quit complaining, he'll be here soon."

The supplier showed up nearly an hour late but the transaction went smoothly. By that time the only thing that Karai could think about was Raphael and being wrapped up tightly in his strong arms. She made a move to break away from the rest of the group, but Bradford stopped her.

"Where are you going?" he asked. "We have to get these crates back to HQ."

"I have business to take care of," she said cryptically. "I'm sure you can handle the supplies without my help."

"You seem to have a lot of late night business to attend to lately," he said.

Karai ignored the insinuation and took off in the direction of the lair.

She snuck in the back way as she always did and slipped into Raph's room. Despite it being nearly 1:30 in the morning, he wasn't there. She tiptoed to the edge of the hallway and peered into the common area. Empty. The only sound was a faint tinkling of metal on porcelain; Splinter in the kitchen making tea. Just then she caught sight of the boys jumping the turnstiles. She lithely sprinted back down the hallway and into Raphael's room. A moment later the door opened and she briefly saw Raph's silhouette before the door closed again.

"You're a terrible kunoichi," he said without even turning on the light. "You dripped a path down the hallway," he explained.

She said nothing, but as he flicked the light switch she threw herself into his arms.

"You're freezing!" he exclaimed. He immediately grabbed a blanket from his bed and wrapped it around her shoulders.

"That's what I get for standing outside in the rain for an hour," she said. "I was acting as a bodyguard for Stockman and the mission took much longer than it should have."

Raphael was silent for a moment. "What was the mission?" he asked cautiously.

She wasn't going to give in. "This whole split loyalties thing is hard enough on me Raph, don't push it."

He kissed her on top of her head as an apology and led her over to his bed. "Are you going to stay the night?" he asked.

"Is that okay?"

"Without a doubt. Just don't try to sneak out on me in the morning again."

"I didn't try to sneak out, you big oaf! You wouldn't wake up and I had to free myself from underneath your bulk."

"What, like this?" He asked, throwing himself on top of her. He propped himself up on his elbows.

Karai kissed him on the top of his beak and slid his mask off. His bright green eyes peered down into her amber ones. He lowered himself down to kiss her back and the last of the chill left Karai's body.


End file.
